High-speed garage jack



'LHJSES RQ E. MANLEY HIGH SPEED GARAGE JACK Filed Oct. 19, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet l gnumll'oz 190601 iflanie u Q Q CiVWQJ UM. M 192%,. 151L625 R. E. MANLEY HIGH SPEED GARAGE JACK Filed Oct. 19, 1922 2 Sheetw-Sheel 2 Patented ct. M, W24.

ROBERT E. MANLEY OF YORK, PENNSYLVANIA.

HIGH-SPEED GARAGE JACK.

Application filed October 19, 1922. Serial No. 585,599.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT E. MANLEY, a citizenof the United States, residing at York, in the county of York and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in High-Speed Garage Jacks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to jacks of the type intended primarily for use in the handling of automobiles and has for its object the provision of a simple and reliable springless jack having but few parts and omitting all toggle-like actions, while permitting quick positioning of the device and rendering it possible to operate the jack in a considerable number of different manners such for example as to enable one to operate the jacks where there is but a minimum of side space or where there is a minimum of overhead space or in limited positions where both side and overhead clearance is slight.

A further object ofthe present invention is to provide a lifting jack of high efficiency. Other various objects of the pres ent invention relate more particularly to the separate details of the jack and will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings,-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a preferred form of my improved jack. 7

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 looking forward toward the handle.

ig. 4 is a central longitudinal section.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation.

Fig. 6 is a sect-ion taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 but looking in a direction opposite to that of Figure 3, in other words, looking toward the rear wheels and the lifting post of the jack.

The frame of the jack is composed of the parallel side pieces 10 and 11 connected at their rear ends by the housing 15 and at their front ends by the axle 16 which in addition to tying and spacing the side members supports a flanged roller 17 forming the forward support for the rack bar 18.

The frame is supported from the floor at the rear end by the two large ground wheels 20 on an axle 21 carried by bearings 22 each of which have a downwardly extending portion 23 bolted to the side pieces and having a lower inturned lip 24 to support the frame more effectively and to relieve the bolts of the weight of the jack.

At the front end the frame is sup-ported by an overhanging truck having vertical attaching lugs 31 bolted or otherwise se cured to the side pieces 10 and 11 and like the rear truck members having inturned weight-supporting lips 32 so that small bolts 33 may be used. The ball bearing casters 35 are of the usual type and are swiveled in outboard bearings as best seen in Fig. 3 in order to increase the lateral stability of the device.

At the front end a yoke 38 is pivoted in a pair of small standards 39 bolted to the side pieces and receiving through their lower ends the axle 16. At its upper end the yoke 38 is provided with a socket 40 which receives the threaded end of the tube 41 forming with the usual cross piece 42 the handle of the device.

A gear meshing with the rack bar 18 is mounted on the shaft 51 which forms the pivotal support for the yoke 38 and integral with this gear 50 is a rack 52. For convenience of manufacture it may be preferable to form the gear and the rack of separate pieces of metal, machine them independently and afterwards assemble them in any well known desired manner so that the two may turn as a unit on the shaft 51. Movement is imparted to the gear and rack by means of a driving pawl 55 pivoted as at 56 to an offset lug 57 on the arm of the yoke adjacent the ratchet wheel 52, this pawl being gravity-operated except when the tube 41 is in a substantially horizontal position; in other words, when it is at the extreme end of its stroke.

Under certain circumstances the pawl 55 will not by gravity engage the teeth of the ratchet wheel and under these exceptional circumstances I make use of a small rod 58 passing through the hollow tube 41 and having a small thumb key 60, the pressing of which throws the lifting pawl 55 into engagement with the ratchet wheel since the pawl rod 58 is pivoted to the pawl at a distance from the pawl pivot 56' as best seen in Fig. 4. It will be understood that because of the offsetting of the pivot of the pawl the pawl operating rod will rarely be called into play since the pawl 55 will usually be held by gravity in engagement with the ratchet wheel.

The holding pawl 62 is pivotally mounted in a bracket 64 on the top plate member 65 of the truck 30 and operates entirely by gravity being pivoted at a considerable distance to the rear of the shaft 51. In order to raise the holding pawl 62 out of engagement with the ratchet wheel 52 I provide a cam 67 having its outer surface concentric with the axis of the shaft 51 when the cam is in normal position, that is, resting against its stop lug 69 on the bracket 70 secured to one arm of the yoke 38. This bracket 70 at its outward forward end pivotally supports the cam 67 so that the outer surface of the latter clears a laterally extending pin 72 on the holding pawl 62 in all positions of the handle provided that the cam is resting against its stop lug. The

cam is pivotally connected to a cam rod 74 parallel and adjacent to the tube 41 and pivoted at its upper end to a manually operated lever 75, the raising of which lifts the cam 67 on its pivot and causes it to be in effect an eccentric, this movement of the cam about its pivot causin the'outer surface of the cam to engage t e laterally extendi pin 72 and consequently to raise the holdlng pawl 62 out of contact with the ratchet wheel 52.

Within the housing 15 is pivoted a gear 77 which may be a full gear, but is preferably a segment as shown, this segment meshing with the teeth on the upper surf-ace of the rack bar 18 and also meshing with the rack teeth 78 on the post 80 the latter-having guides 81 fitting in a two-sided groove 82 in the main or forward portion of the housing. As best seen in the plan view of Fig. 2 the rear cover 84 of the housing 15 cooperates with the groove82 to form a channel to receive the guide 81 on either side of the post.

In order to conserve space and. to add materially to the capacity of the rack the post is centrally slotted as at 85 so as'to clear the rack bar 18 at such portion of its travel as the rear end of the rack bar is beyond the plane of the front face of the post. Additional raising capacity is provided by the auxiliary lifting screw 87 which may be manually screwed upward in order for example to engage a portion of the automobile quite high above the floor, this sometimes being necessary or at least convenient. The auxiliary screw forms no part of the present invention as it is shown in a number of my previous patents.

In order to prevent lifting the post beyond the capacity of the rack I provide a stop member which may conveniently take the form of a central bolt 90 having a spacing sleeve 91 and engaging stop lugs t e 92 and 93 attached to or integral with rack bar 18. A flange roller 94, exactly similar to the roller 17, is provided directly beneath the axis of the segment 77. Although the rack bar 18 forms a column of consider-able length it is preferably formed of a rod of such cross section as to render unnecessary any vertical or horizontal lateral support and in practice I have found such sup-ports entirely unnecessary, although they may be furnished if it should be desired to use a rack of lighter or thinner material.

The operation of the jack is believed to be clear from the previous description. The jack is wheeled into position with the post directly beneath the object to be engaged, for example, the differential housing at the rear of an automobilea The post is raised into engagement with the housing by simply holding the handle and pushing the forwardly extending rack bar with the foot. Both pawls are free and consequently the post is raised into engagement with the differential housing with practically no effort. The handle is now moved about the axis of the yoke. If there is plenty of room the handle may be moved from vertical to horizontal position which will, in my preferred form of the jack, cause the ratchet wheel .to move three teeth. Upon returning the. handle to vertical position the lifting pawl will idle over the teeth and the gravity acting holding pawl will act in the usual way. If the available room is limited in any way, a much shorter stroke may be taken, for example, the handle may be moved from vertical only two-thirds of the distance to the floor which will move the ratchet two teeth instead of three and under different circumstances, for instance when working under a truck having a considerable overhang, the handle may then only be moved a single tooth at a time starting the stroke from about 40 from the ground and ending near the ground but at a sufiicient distance therefrom to assure against bruising ones knuckles.

To lower the device, the handle is moved slightly forward to put the weight on-the lifting pawl 55 and then with the fingers of the right hand the lever is lifted, turning the cam about its pivot and by its eccentric action raising the holding pawl which is of course released at the end of each stroke.

Particular attention is called to the underhanging of the jack frame, this having the great advantage that when an automobile is raised but a short distance from the ground, assuming the differential housing to e engaged, the jack may be swung about its rear ground wheels and the frame will read- 11y clear the rear wheels. In lowering an overhanging truck it may be that the lifting pawl may not be in such position as to engage readily the ratchet in spite of its shape and offset pivot; in such cases the operator after moving the handle to a nearly horizontal position presses the thumb key 60 and while holding this key moves the handle still further down to take the weight on the pawl after which he raises the cam eccentric 67 and proceeds in the usual manner. It is never necessary to use the key in raising as the engagement of the pawl and ratchet when the pawl is stressed, prevents disengagement until after the holding pawl has taken the weight from the pawl 55.

What I cla1m is:

1. In a jack, a portable frame, a lifting post at one end of the frame, a handle adjacent the opposite end of the frame, a horizontally disposed rack bar supported from the frame for transmitting motion from the handle to said post, connections between the handle and rack bar, and means for rendering said connections inoperative whereby the bar may be reciprocated independently of the handle.

2. In a jack, a lifting post having a rack on one face thereof, a gear meshing with said rack, a handle, a rack bar for transmitting motion from said handle to said gear, connections between the handle and rack bar, and means for renderin said connections inoperative whereby the Iiar may be reciprocated independently of the handle.

3. In a ack, a lifting post, a rack movable with said post, a reciprocating rack and a gear meshing with each of said raclis, a housing for the gear meshing with the rack for the post and means in said housing for guiding the lifting post.

4:. In a jack, a frame, a rack bar reciprocatingl mounted in said frame, a liftin post a apted to be raised by motion of sa1 rack bar in one direction and to be lowered by movement of said rack bar; in the other direction, means for actauting said bar to raise said post, and means for holding said rack bar against reverse movement when said first mentioned means is inoperative and means for rendering the bar actuating means inoperative whereby the bar may be actuated independently of said actuating means.

5. In an automobile jack, a frame, a plurality of ground wheels for supporting said frame, an axle for two of said ground wheels, said axle lying above said frame, lifting mechanism in proximity to said axle, and means for moving said frame about said lifting mechanism as a pivot, the overhanging of the frame enabling said frame to pass beneath the wheel of an automobile when the lifting means has engaged and elevated the differential housing.

6. In an automobile jack, a wheel supported frame, lifting mechanism near one end of said frame, ratchet and pawl mechanism at the other end of said frame, and means for manually pressing the pawl into engagement with the ratchet when the overhead clearance is limited.

7. In an automobile jack, lifting mechanism including a reciprocating rack, a gear for driving said rack, a ratchet integral with said gear, a handle ivoted about the axis of said gear, a pawl pivoted to said handle, said ratchet having more than seven teeth whereby a pivotal movement of the handle of as little as 50 will move the ratchet one tooth.

8. In an automobile jack, a frame, a plurality of trucks each located above said frame, a housing near one end of said frame, a lifting post vertically movable in said housing, means within said housing for transmltting movement to said lifting post, an elon ated member lying within and supported fiy said frame for transmitting motion to said means within the housing, a handle, means including a pawl and ratchet for transforming oscillating movement of said handle into reciprocatin movement of said horizontal member, a ho ding pawl engaging said ratchet, and an arcuate member normally concentric with said ratchet for withdrawing said last mentioned pawl from said ratchet.

9. In a jack, a rack carrying a vertically movable lifting post, a horizontal movable rack bar, a gear meshing with said rack and said rack bar, oscillating means for moving said rack. bar, and means on the rack bar for limiting the upward movement of said lifting post.

- ROBERT E. MANLEY. 

